Flatbed linehaul rates remained mostly flat the last week of May, DAT reported.
Economic forces, consumer demand, seasonality, natural disasters and myriad other factors contribute to transport’s cyclical market.
Load-to-truck ratios
Load-to-truck ratios sprang upward for the week beginning May 12, compared to the previous seven-day period. DAT reported:
Load-to-truck ratios were mixed across equipment types for the week beginning May 26, compared to the previous seven-day period. DAT reported:
Dry van increased from 4.6 to 5.2 loads per truck
Reefer decreased from 6.4 to 6.3 loads per truck
Flatbed increased from 17.6 to 19.3 loads per truck
“Dry van load post volume was within 3% of last year following last week’s short shipping week following Memorial Day,” DAT noted in a blog post, adding that carrier equipment posts were 24% lower during the week than the same period last year.
Spot linehaul rates
DAT’s linehaul rates measure the seven-day weekly moving average for spot rates in dry van, reefer and flatbed hauls. They often reflect the balance of supply and demand in the spot market. The rates are derived from DAT’s RateView database and do not include a fuel surcharge.
National benchmark average rates varied across multiple equipment types the week beginning May 26, compared to the previous week, per DAT:
Dry van increased by 1 cent to $1.66
Reefer decreased by 1 cent to $1.97
Flatbed essentially remained flat at $2.07
“Flatbed linehaul rates have remained mostly flat for the last three weeks,” DAT wrote in another blog post. Flatbed spot rates stayed above $2 per mile since breaking that threshold in May, a national average weekly rate last seen in July 2023.
The Canadian government is investing up to C$51.2 million (US$37.5 million) in 19 digital infrastructure projects to bolster Canada’s global trade presence, including some projects that address the flow of container movements.
Funding will come from the National Corridors Trade Fund, a C$4.6 billion program to make domestic supply chains more efficient, bolster infrastructure resiliency and reduce trade barriers, among other objectives. The 11-year program will wrap up funding on March 31, 2028; so far, C$4.1 billion has been committed to projects since 2017.
"Strengthening supply chains is essential to reducing trade barriers and strengthens Canada’s international trade performance. These investments demonstrate Canada’s commitment to stronger supply chains,” said Vance Badawey, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Transport, in a 31 May release from government agency Transport Canada.
The developmet of Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor (TITR), construction and cooperation of the countries and operators along the corridor has become one of the most important topics in the branch, so as the optimizing Eurasian trade and logistics services in response to supply chain disruptions.
By the end of 2023, more than 82,000 train trips have been operated and 7.9 million TEUs transported. The routes reachs 217 cities in 25 European countries. In 2020, Zhengzhou was approved as one of the first 5 assembly centers for Eurasian rail freight in China. In 2023, China-Europe freight train(Zhengzhou) had beed operated more than 3000 trips and more than 10,000 trips in total since 2013.
Province Henan has 3 national first-class land ports, 5 comprehensive bonded zones. It should be noted that the Zhengzhou Airport Economy Comprehensive Zone is currently the most important development project in Henan Province, and the new Zhengzhou International Land Port is currently under construction in this zone. Industrial manufacturing and automotive companies such as Linde, Foxconn, Skyworth, Geely and BYD are located in the airport zone.
The first Eurasian Rail Freight Expo (Zhengzhou), organized by China Federation of Logistics and Purchasing and Zhengzhou Airport Economy Comprehensive Zone, will be held on 6-8 June, together with the International Rail Freight and Multimodal Transport Summit.
The event will be attended by the governments of Henan Province and Zhengzhou Municipality, the Logistics Port Office, Zhengzhou Airport and Zhengzhou International Land Port, as well as key platform companies. Well-known operators and logistics companies from Asia and Europe will also be invited.
It appears increasingly likely that the main east-west container trades have now entered an early peak season – which, combined with disruptions such as equipment shortages, port congestion and schedule volatility, has caused the recent spike in spot rates.
There were tentative signs this week, however, that the pressure might be easing.
After three weeks of consecutive double-digit rate increases, this week saw low-to-mid single-digit rises, indicating that the upward spiral has begun to taper off.
Both the Drewry World Container Index’s (WCI) Shanghai-Rotterdam leg and Xeneta XSI’s Asia-North Europe saw spot rates rise 5%, to $5,270 per 40ft and $5,280 per 40ft respectively, while on the transpacific, the WCI’s Shanghai-Los Angeles leg was up 2%, to $5,390, and the XSI rose 4.5%, to $5,170.
“The current spot rally on Asia-North Europe will start to reverse in June, while the transpacific will stabilise or soften in the second half of 2024,” predicted Drewry senior manager of container research Simon Heaney in the company’s Freight Loop briefing
Xeneta’s head analyst, Peter Sand, agreed that this week’s market may appear a silver lining, but warned that some shippers could continue to encounter supply chain issues.
“While average spot rates will increase again on 1 June, the growth is not as rapid as it was during May, which may hint towards a slight easing in the situation,” he said.
“This cannot come soon enough for shippers who are already having their cargo rolled – even for containers being moved on long-term contracts signed only a matter of weeks ago.
“Carriers will prioritise shippers paying the highest rates. That means cargo belonging to shippers paying lower rates on long-term contracts is at risk of being left at the port. It happened during the Covid-19 pandemic, and it is happening again now.
“We are also seeing freight forwarders being hit with new surcharges and being pushed onto premium services to have space guaranteed onboard ships. In such cases they have no other option than to pass these costs on directly to their customers.”
And he added: “Carriers will continue to push for higher and higher freight rates, so the situation may get worse for shippers before it gets better.”
Shipment delays in Singapore have more than doubled, hit by a shortage of ships and containers, and congestion at ports. This could translate into higher prices for consumers, amid an impending supply chain crisis. One analyst says some sectors in Singapore are expected to come off worse from container and ship shortages. These include firms in the manufacturing industry, especially those involved in producing heavy goods, like consumer electronics or electric vehicles. Nasyrah Rohim and Charlotte Lim report.
The sense of genuine anger amongst North European shippers and freight forwarders was palpable this week as they struggled to digest rapidly escalating spot freight rates.
The ascent steepened over recent weeks, with Drewry’s WCI Shanghai-Rotterdam leg rising 20% week-on-week to finish at $4,999 per 40ft.
However, sources told The Loadstar that slots were being purchased at much higher levels.
“Real terms rates for spot are in the $6,000-$7,500 mark, with carriers saying they will hit $10,000.”
Tight vessel supply is continuing to combine with high demand in trunk trades and has led to a worsening shortage of containers at key export hubs in Asia, as The Loadstar reported earlier this week, and which is now having a significant impact on secondary trades.
But carriers’ preference to carry higher paying spot cargo over contracted volumes is infuriating many customers.
One European import manager suggested the recent hikes would likely force it to suspend shipments once its current bookings are completed.
“The carriers don’t honour anything but their profits – we’re loading/shipping out the stock that’s currently on production lines, then we will cease again, and we’ve already informed our suppliers and partners.
The European Commission (EC) approved a scheme for 1.7 billion euros to support single wagonload and wagon group transport in Germany until 2029. “The maximum annual budget amounts to €320 million”, the EC specified. The measure aims at ensuring that these types of transport and the companies operating them do not cease to exist due to their economic struggles.
Wagon group transport is defined as trains that keep “the same composition from the origin to the destination and is eligible under the scheme for journeys up to a maximum distance of 300 km if operated by short block trains with up to 15 wagons”. This is not a very profitable segment, as it deals with lower number of wagons and shorter distances.
Single wagonload is not profitable as it includes various switching and shunting procedures, which increase costs. For this specific sector, the German government already approved 300 million euros in its budget for the 2024-2027 period. However, concerns remained as some members of the industry say that single wagonload needs more support.
Container spot rates have continued their upward trajectory on the trunk east-west trades with double digit week-on-week gains on the Asia-Europe and Asia-North America routes.
Drewry’s World Container Index (WCI) recorded 12% week-on-week increases on Shanghai-Rotterdam, Shanghai-Los Angeles and Shanghai-New York legs, which respectively finished the week at $4,172, $4,476 and $5,717 per 40ft.
“Drewry expects ex-China freight rates to rise due to increased demand, tight capacity, and the need to reposition empty containers,” the analyst said.
The WCI recorded an 11% increase in Shanghai-Genoa, to $4,776 per 40ft. Freightos’ FBX Asia-Mediterranean leg recorded a 17% increase on the leg to $5,179 per 40ft.
“Ex-Asia ocean rates climbed sharply last week as early month GRIs took hold – with additional significant increases possible in the coming days from mid-month GRIs and surcharges – as unseasonal increases in demand combine with already-stretched capacity due to Red Sea diversions that require the use of more ships and are still causing congestion in places like the West Mediterranean and South Asia,” Freightos head analyst Judah Levine said.
Kami menawarkan Door To Door untuk memudahkan semua orang dalam kegiatan import.Kami juga menawarkan Borongan All-in untuk pengiriman FCL dan LCL,Serta Custom Clearance dan Undername.
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Mr. KITO
TELEPON : 021-2784-3213
MOBILE : 0857-6377-2482
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